• February 5, 2020

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In March 2018, AT&T agreed to a five-year deal to complete the deployment of FirstNet, a nationwide public-safety broadband network. The project can net AT&T more than $1 billion once the company completes 80% of the FirstNet buildout. AT&T Chief Operating Officer (COO), John Stankey, hopes to hit that mark in the next few months.

Stankey made the announcement during an earnings call and spoke highly of FirstNet’s future.

“FirstNet plays an important role here,” said Stankey. “We now serve more than 10,000 first-responder agencies and more than 1 million connections with FirstNet. We expect those numbers will grow nicely as our FirstNet deployment reaches 80%, and new devices and capabilities come to market in the coming months.”

If AT&T reaches its 80% threshold goal this spring, the company will be a year ahead of its five-year contract. There’s plenty of incentive for the company to finish this deployment early too, as AT&T could make up to $6.5 billion on the project.

The news comes off the heels of the latest General Accountability Office (GAO) report on certain agencies adopting the FirstNet system, saying some of these agencies only had limited connections in 2019.

However, as of July 2019, the GAO report also showed that while FirstNet targeted 400,000 connections, there were more than 700,000 connections—165% of contracted target goal.

The numbers can only continue to increase with AT&T’s first buildout, especially if it’s finished one year ahead of schedule.

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Sources:

urgentcomm.com/2020/01/31/att-to-finish-80-of-firstnet-buildout-in-coming-months-exec-says/